Texas Teen Book Festival Full Schedule Unveiled

AUSTIN, TX — Texas Teen Book Festival organizers on Friday unveiled the full schedule for the 2019 event taking place in October.

The festival is scheduled on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Southwestern University in Georgetown. Organizers promise an exciting program for this year's iteration of the festival with opening keynote speaker Erika L. Sánchez and closing keynote speaker Akilah Hughes; panels and sessions by award-winning authors, including Mary H.K. Choi, David Yoon, Gabby Rivera, Abdi Nazemian, Christopher Myers, and Lauren Shippen; plus book signings, educational workshops, a costume contest sponsored by Epic Reads, an exciting 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, and a Penguin Teen Game Night in the iTent.

The jam-packed festival day will begin at 9 a.m. and features panels, keynotes, and events, including:

• 9 a.m. – BookPeople Book Sales Opens at McCombs Bishop’s Lounge

• 9 a.m. – Exhibitor Tents Open on Academic Mall

• 10 a.m. – Announcements and Opening Keynote at Alma Thomas Theater
• Featuring: Erika Sánchez

• 11:15 a.m. – Panel 1: What’s Your Platform? at Alma Thomas Theater
• Featuring: Mary H.K. Choi, Akilah Hughes, Lauren Shippen

• 11:15 a.m. – Panel 2: Kill Your Darlings at McCombs Ballroom
• Featuring: Renée Ahdieh, Amy Rose Capetta, Jennifer Donaldson, Lamar Giles, Gretchen McNeil

• 12:15 p.m. – Signing 1 at Signing Tent in Academic Mall
• Featuring: Katharyn Blair, Amy Rose Capetta, Lamar Giles, Bill Konigsberg, Gretchen McNeil, Abdi Nazemian, Erika Sánchez, Alex Temblador

• 1:30 p.m. – Panel 3: Reality Bytes at Alma Thomas Theater
• Featuring: Arvin Ahmadi, Mary H.K. Choi, Katharyn Blair, BrittneyMorris

• 1:30 p.m. – Panel 4: Even Stranger Things at McCombs Ballroom
• Featuring: Margaret Owen, Kristina Pérez, Katy Rose Pool, Lauren Shippen, Alexandra Villasante

• 1:30 p.m. – Signing 2 at Signing Tent in Academic Mall
• Featuring: Kat Cho, Jennifer Donnelly, Akwaeke Emezi, Thanhha Lai, Sandhya Menon, Christopher Myers, Rory Power, Misa Sugiura, Kate Williams

• 2:30 p.m. – Panel 5: It’s Our World. Now What? at Alma Thomas Theater
• Featuring: Joelle Charbonneau, e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, Brandy Colbert, Akwaeke Emezi

• 2:30 p.m. – Panel 6: Love Me for Who I Am at McCombs Ballroom
• Featuring: Nandini Bajpai, Bill Konigsberg, Abdi Nazemian, Gabby Rivera, David Yoon

• 2:30 p.m. – Signing 3 at Signing Tent in Academic Mall
• Featuring: Arvin Ahmadi, James Kennedy, Tricia Levenseller, BrittneyMorris, Margaret Owen, Kristina Pérez, Katy Rose Pool, Lauren Shippen, Alexandra Villasante

• 3:30 p.m. – Writing Contest Winners Announced and Closing Keynote at Alma Thomas Theater
• Featuring: Akilah Hughes

• 4:45 p.m. – Panel 7: Fierce, Funny, and Fearless at Alma Thomas Theater
• Featuring: Kat Cho, Jennifer Donnelly, Tricia Levenseller, Rory Power, Kate Williams

• 4:45 p.m. – Panel 8: This Is Us at McCombs Ballroom
• Featuring: Thanhha Lai, Sandhya Menon, Erika Sánchez, Misa Sugiura, Alex Temblador

• 4:45 p.m. – Signing 4 at Signing Tent in Academic Mall
• Featuring: Renée Ahdieh, Nandini Bajpai, Joelle Charbonneau, e. E. Charlton-Trujillo, Mary H.K. Choi, Brandy Colbert, Jennifer Donaldson, Akilah Hughes, Gabby Rivera, David Yoon

• 5:45 p.m. – All Author Signing Session in Academic Mall

In addition to panels and signings throughout the day, the Festival will feature:

• Writing workshops hosted by Badgerdog and BarrioWriters at 11:15 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Badgerdog is a creative writing program of The Library Foundation for writers of all ages and skill levels, and the workshop will offer readers a chance to develop their own writing creativity in the graphic storytelling genre. Barrio Writers is a creative writing program that provides free college level writing workshops to teenagers in underserved communities, and the workshop will allow teens to read, reflect, and write with Festival Author Alex Temblador and BarrioWriters Director Leticia Urieta.

• Special events with We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), including a public Ask Me Anything session in the iTent with Christopher Myers, Brittney Morris, and others. Additionally, winners of the WNDB essay contest, which prompted teens to write about what community means to them, will be invited to a private event with authors and publishing representations to talk about writing, publishing, and different paths they can take in the book industry. This year's reception will be hosted by author Christopher Myers, who has just launched a new imprint at Random House called Make Me a World. Judges for this year's contest were Justin A. Reynolds and Mason Deaver.

• A 90-Second Newbery Film Festival hosted by author and 90-Second Newbery Founder James Kennedy and Newbery Honor Recipient and Author Thanhha Lai at Alma Thomas Theater. This special screening will feature some of the all-time best movies submitted to the Festival, a yearly video contest in which young filmmakers create movies that tell the stories of Newbery Medal-winning books in about 90 seconds. Come to the theater at 12:15 p.m. to see some weird, creative, funny, sweet films and get some expert tips on how to make your own.

• Additionally, the iTent will return again this year. This interactive space is designed to bring YA fans closer to their favorite authors and will offer opportunities to learn, create, and share. The full iTent schedule, including an exciting Penguin Teen Game Night event, will be announced closer to the Festival.

The Texas Teen Book Festival is a collaboration among Texas Book Festival, BookPeople, a dedicated team of librarians and venue sponsor Southwestern University. The 2019 TTBF is presented by H-E-B. Other major sponsors include Brigid Cockrum & Family, AT&T Foundation, the Buena Vista Foundation, 3M, Riveted by Simon Teen, PenguinTeen, EpicReads, and Reading Group Choices. The program is also made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The one-day book festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 12 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Southwestern University in Georgetown. TTBF remains free and open to the public thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and dozens of committed volunteers. For more information, please visit www.texasteenbookfestival.org and keep up with announcements at Facebook.com/TexasTeenBookFestival and on Twitter and Instagram @TXTeenBookFest.

ABOUT THE TEXAS TEEN BOOK FESTIVAL

The Texas Teen Book Festival is a one-day event that celebrates the teen reading experience by inviting fans to visit with some of the most popular and critically acclaimed young adult authors in the country. The Texas Teen Book Festival was born as the Austin Teen Book Festival in 2009 when librarian Heather Schubert partnered with BookPeople to organize a gathering at Westlake High School. Five hundred guests and sixteen authors attended the first year and the event grew every year thereafter. From 2011-2013, the Festival was sponsored by the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation, and in 2014, the Festival became a program of Texas Book Festival and was renamed the Texas Teen Book Festival. One of the largest gatherings of its kind anywhere, the annual TTBF takes place in the fall on the campus of Southwestern University. For more information, visit www.texasteenbookfestival.org.